


Axis Mundi

by yuffiehighwind



Series: An Eternity in Cheese Country [43]
Category: Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess
Genre: Dual Identity, Gen, Milwaukee, Modern Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-01
Updated: 2009-12-01
Packaged: 2017-11-18 18:35:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/564148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuffiehighwind/pseuds/yuffiehighwind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Humans have curious ways of coping.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Axis Mundi

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of the 'fic series "An Eternity in Cheese Country," and here's why - after they were killed by Callisto and Xena, the souls of Strife, Discord, and Deimos were reincarnated in the late 20th century into three humans named Steve, Veronica, and Dave.

"What's this?"  
  
Deimos picked up the orange bottle and shook it side to side, maraca style, shooting Discord a curious look. She dodged his gaze and continued cooking, head bent over the stove so hair covered her face.  
  
"Just...something Dennis gave me. He thought it'd help. You know."  
  
Sidling up behind her, he placed one hand on her shoulder and shoved the bottle into her face with the other.  
  
"Help with what? The rent?"  
  
Discord stirred the pasta. She used to just let it sit, but she didn't want pieces stuck on the bottom. She put another dash of salt in the simmering water.  
  
"Help with the...changes. With all this." She gestured around the apartment with her spoon, then went back to staring into the waters. Deimos peered in too, half expecting a vision to appear of the future, or the past.  
  
The dark young thing backed up, turning from the stove and around her nosy cousin and into the "dining room," which was just a rickety table halfway between the kitchenette and the couch. Still holding her wooden spoon, she tried straightening plates and silverware, and it was all very domestic and Nothing Like Her.  
  
He leaned against the counter and took a closer look at the bottle. "Escitalopram..." he murmured the rest to himself, then said louder, "You're a junkie now, cuz?"  
  
Discord suppressed a smirk. She was supposed to be...This meant she was...Was she allowed to smile, now?  
  
"It's just this concoction some human alchemists came up with, you know, like shamans used to, except they do it in labs now and don't let half-cocked medicine men mix up donkey dung with hallucinogens and give it to kiddies anymore. It's all very..." she turned to punctuate her sentence with a haughty look. "...legitimate."  
  
Deimos took this in a bit slowly, because human life was all very fresh, and new, and...shockingly predictable when Discord put it in terms he could understand.

"You're depressed?"  
  
He shook his head and put the bottle down, then laughed.

"Discord's depressed! What could you possibly have to be sad about? You got me here."  
  
She smirked a little at him. "Exactly."  
  
He frowned. _"Hey!"_  
  
Heading back over to the kitchen with plates, Discord pushed past him and focused on a second pan filled with tomato sauce. Picking up the bottle again, Deimos shook out a few more beats.  
  
"Is there anything I can do?"  
  
She just shook her head.  
  
"I don't trust that guy."  
  
She smiled and shrugged, the latter all he could see.  
  
"I just want you to be happy."  
  
This caught her off guard a little, so she just continued working on their meal, not showing any emotion. As little as the back of a neck can show at all.  
  
Discord had clammed up again, so her cousin just switched topics. "So what's on the menu?"  
  
And this she could explain.  
  
That night she chucked the pills in the bottom of a drawer. What was this puny mortal brain made of? Particles in between synapses shooting off signals to other synapses, all equaling this soul that man had fictionalized into fairytale myth? The things she'd seen! Were they all fantasies? Dreams? Hallucinations? Created by the addled brain of a young, frightened victim of trauma and typical human evil? No, it couldn't be just that. It had to have been real.  
  
And even if it wasn't. What had Ares used to say? That pain kept us aware we were living? Some trope for which he claimed authorship. What was this endless black night behind the eyelids but proof of experience? If she could make it all go away with 20 milligrams a day...  
  
Could she?

**Author's Note:**

> -The "axis mundi," in religion or mythology, is the world center or the connection between Heaven and Earth.
> 
> -"Escitalopram" is an SSRI antidepressant more commonly known as "Lexapro," which I was taking when I wrote this.


End file.
